Hundreds of millions of people have closed the door of our houses with us inside. With one goal: to stop the spread of the new SARS-Cov-2 virus. The impact of this global confinement, the so-called coronavirus crisis, has already changed the world. But what will it be like when we cross the thresholds of our homes "is not yet written", in the words of the political scientist Cristina Monge, director of talks at Ecodes. This has been said in the virtual dialogue The day after will be ... that more than 1,000 people have followed live, according to data from the organizing entities, the Center for Innovation in Technology for Human Development of the Polytechnic University of Madrid (itdUPM ), the Barcelona Institute of Global Health (ISGlobal), the Spanish Network for Sustainable Development (REDS) and Iberdrola.
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"We are aware of the situation, but we believe that it is a good time to build a hopeful future, with a message of confidence in our ability as a society to build a day after that that connects with the ambition of a more sustainable and inclusive world as stated in the 2030 Agenda ", has reflected Carlos Mataix, director of the itdUPM. More forceful has been the researcher of the Higher Council for Scientific Research (CSIC), Fernando Valladares: "There are people who tell us that we are going to return to normality. Which one? I do not want to return to the normality that has caused this."
In order to build a different world by the time we get out of the confinement, the experts cited have reflected on the lessons that can be drawn from the debacle that this coronavirus has caused in human and material terms. "I want to think that we are facing a phenomenon that our generation has never experienced. We are living something similar to what World War II was, I hope with less mortality, but with tremendous consequences that will affect the entire population. From that war a new world was born, a different one will have to emerge after this crisis, "Rafael Vilasanjuan, from ISGlobal, has launched.
"There are people who tell us that we are going to return to normality. Which one? I do not want to return to the normality that has caused this
Fernando Valladares (CSIC)
"One of the great ideas that we are going to start dealing with is security. I am not talking about more police and the army, but about more resilient societies, living in a healthy and adequate ecosystem, with a diversified economy and capable of producing a minimum. And less uneven ", Monge has summarized. These have been, in detail, the proposals so that effectively the world after the coronavirus is the closest thing to the ideal proposed by the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and not one equal to or worse than the one we left behind.
Less unequal societies (and more resilient economies)
"Since 2008 we have not managed to build a resilient economy", José Moisés Martín Carretero, CEO of Red2Red, has started his speech. Since the Paris Agreement and the approval of the 2030 Agenda (2015), thought had begun to change the model. "But it has not taken time. Now we see that a virus is capable of collapsing our economic system, which is very fragile and vulnerable," he added. And when things go wrong, pagans are the most vulnerable. "The experience of the 2008 crisis tells us. Those who were poor were poorer in 2012 and continue to be so," he points out.
Now the virus threatens to hit those most in need again. "It is not just because of the lack of employment. Right now, most children study at home through online applications. What if there is no connection in your home or just a computer for the whole family?" economist. "We have to put the fight against inequality back at the center of the economy. This crisis generates inequality and it rains on the wet," he warned.
Healthier
Valladares predicts that the day after "we will hug each other and congratulate ourselves on the success". But it will be a "pyrrhic" achievement, in his opinion, "because it will leave thousands of dead." The real triumph will not be to overcome this virus, but rather that we do not have pandemics, he sentenced.
"In the 1970s we thought infectious diseases could be eradicated; in the 1980s, with AIDS, that idea ended," recalled Vilasanjuan. According to the expert, the epidemics that have been experienced year after year since then, were signs of "a crisis at idle", which means that the population is not mobilizing. "Now we are aware of the importance of our health systems"; has reasoned. Something similar occurs with climate change, he pointed out. "We say there is a climate emergency, but we do not take the measures that we should," he warned.
A more sustainable existence
"Now we are confined at home to take a little more seriously what was already said at the 1992 Earth Summit: the unsustainability of our activities. It seems incredible that Greta Thunberg had to come and tell us the old men that we have not done nothing and we get out of the way so that youth can get down to work, "Valladares began his turn in this debate moderated by Leire Pajín, president of REDS.
When we wake up from this nightmare, the monster of climate change will still be there
José Moisés Martín (Red2Red)
The CSIC researcher believes that it will be necessary to take "quite drastic measures to shake society" because "many people see the environment as something alien". For this reason, and with the certainty that nature is giving us back the damage that human beings have inflicted on it, Valladares calls to consider the preservation of our planet as an investment in health and not a drain on spending. "When we wake up from this nightmare, the monster of climate change will still be there," said Martín Carretero.
More global
"I do not think it is time to propose a global government, but for some things it is not worth it with goodwill. And states alone cannot respond to challenges such as climate change, global health, mobility ...", stated Vilasanjuan . For this reason, in Monge's opinion, "global governance is essential. Because the challenges are also essential. This does not mean that it does not belong to anyone, but that it belongs to everyone."
For Martín Carretero, systems have to change. "But we have to resist with all our strength, will and knowledge, the temptation of nationalism," he stressed. "If this ends up turning us into authoritarian countries, we are going to have a much worse world." To avoid bad temptations, and to build that more global future, more resilient, healthy and sustainable, and less unequal societies, there is a roadmap: the SDGs. "This agenda is more valid today than ever," Monge has finished.
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